Venue: At Bait-ur-Rehman Mosque on Saturday November 23rd, 2013, from 10AM to 6PM.
15000 Goodhope Road, Silver Spring, Maryland
Session 1: Tapping into the treasures of the Quran for science 10:00 AM-11:15 AM
Moderators: Drs. Sohail Z. Husain, MD and Ijaz Ahmad, PhD (candidate)
Tilawat—Sheharyar Sarwar Sahib, BA [5 min]
Welcome remarks and message from Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V (aba)—Dr. Sohail Z. Husain, MD, AAMS President [7 min]
Tools to use the Quran in advancing science—Moulana Naseem Mahdi, Naib Amir and Missionary-in-Charge [15 min]
A video on the first golden age of Islamic science [7 min]
Methodologies of research on the Quran—Dr. Hameed Mirza, PhD, National Taleem Secretary, Canada Jamaat [10 min]
The scientific method from a Quranic angle—Dr. Waseem Sayed, PhD, National Secretary Waqf-e-Jadid [10 min]
Panel discussion [20 min]
Coffee or tea break [15 min]
Session 2: Ahmadi Muslim scientists in action 11:30AM-12:45 PM
Moderators: Dr. Fizan Abdullah, MD, PhD and Sharjeel Chaudhry Sahib, BS
[4-6 Scientific presentations of 12 min each [8 min presentation and 4 min Q&A]
[Exploiting regeneration of the pancreas to treat pancreatic disorders—Sohail Z. Husain, MD, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA]
[Studying DNA repair to treat cancer—Masood A. Shammas, PhD, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA]
[Rapid Synthesis of BINOL Derivatives: Making valuable organic compounds more efficiently—Ijaz Ahmed, PhD (candidate), Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY]
[And His Throne is carried by eight angels: The search for simplicity in complex systems—Chairul Bahri, PhD, BBVA, Illinois]
[Calcium targets in pancreatitis—Abrahim Orabi, BS, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA]
Panel discussion [15 min]
Break for Prayers and Lunch 12:45 PM-2:15 PM
Session 3: Poster tour
A tour of poster presentations from Ahmadi Muslim scientists and students [estimate about 10-15 posters with about 5 min per poster, 60 min]
Tour leaders: Drs. Fizan Abdullah, Khalid Ata, Taimur Ahmed
Coffee or tea break [15 min]
Session 4: So you want to be a scientist 3:30 PM-4:45 PM
Moderator(s): Dr. Zia Shah, MD
To be a PhD or an MD, that is the question—Dr. Tahir Ahmed, MD (candidate), PhD, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 13 min]
Scientific writing made easy—Dr. Sohail Z. Husain, MD, University of Pittsburgh [13 min]
Achieving academic success—Dr. Fizan Abdullah, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD [13 min]
Panel discussion [20 min]
Discussants: Drs. Tahir Ahmed, Zia Shah, Sohail Z. Husain, Fizan Abdullah
Coffee or tea break [15 min]
Session 5: Our next steps as a scientific society 5:00 PM-6:00 PM
Moderators: Moulana Naseem Mahdi and Dr. Sohail Z. Husain, MD
Tilawat [5 min]
Synopsis of the meeting [Dr. Sohail Z. Husain, MD, 10 min]
General body meeting and discussing our next steps [45 min]
Dinner 6.00 PM
Categories: Ahmadiyyat: True Islam, Religion & Science, Religion and Science
Assalamu Alaikum
Excellent symposium program! I wish I were in the neighborhood. Will this be available on YouTube?
Masha’Allah! May Allah bless your efforts.
An important dimension of promoting science research is to involve children in science learning from early school grades.
As I say:
“Nobel laureate of today was an elementary level student one day.”
Children also learn through the easy version of higher level books, such as Children’s Oxford Dictionary, Children’s Britannica etc.
Have you ever seen children version of research journals?
Children’s Research Journals! Simplified version, simple text, easy to understand pictures, less complicated math, and interesting statistics can be published in many languages and in many subject areas to enrich our academic world. Rights of Children! Bring children closer to the research community!
It is time to publish this form of literature.
Keil and Wilson (2000:281) remark: “We think that there is much overlap between the form of everyday explanation used by non-scientists and explanations used by scientists.”
(Keil, F.C and Wilson, R.A (2000) Explanation and Cognition. A Bradford Book. The MIT Press.)
This is an important research finding which can further support the rationale for this new generation of literature.
One of the challenging areas for writing is where science and humanities meet. Gould (2003:132) concludes:
“Because we have cut ourselves off from scholars in the humanities who pay closer attention to the modes of communication, we have spun our own self-referential wheels and developed artificial standards and rules of writing that virtually guarantee the unreadability of scientific articles outside the clubhouse.”
(Gould, S.J (2003) The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister’s Pox: Mending the gap between Science and the Humanities, New York: The Three Rivers)
Obviously not every research can be simplified to children’s level but this does not mean that no research can be simplified to children’s level.
Why we need it:
.To teach the pattern of research articles. For example: abstract, introduction, previous studies, current study, results, future implications bibliography etc. (mainly based on the structure of scientific method)
.To introduce elementary level students to the latest research work that may be interesting for children
.To address the Rights of children, to know the latest research at the level of their understanding within reasonable limits. Children of today are our future university students.
.To enhance research interest in students
.To prepare students for higher level studies in a simplified way
.To enhance communication between the research community and children readers
.To open pathways for great scientists of the future
How to start and explore the effectiveness (some examples include):
.Start from a group of a publishing resource/ publisher
.Find a university to work on this project; select the parameters for the study according to the available resources, design the study tools, resources & explore the responses of students using valid ways of research
.Exploring the possibility to publish the simplified version of recent journal articles that may be suitable for children (permission aspect can be explored)
.Start a new research journal for children
.Start various research journals for children according to the subjects
.Start translations in other languages for the benefit of all children in the world
.Giving children’s research journals a look that appeals to children’s taste such as cartoons, pictures, web diagrams, easy form of statistics and text
.Publishing results
In the next phase (if feasible)
.Teaching children to write their own research articles in simplified form
. Teachers and others can teach children to conduct a small experiment or study and then results can be published in some children’s research journals.
As it is true for any academic and scholarly work, this process will require more research in the future to constantly review the progress of children’s research journals and make necessary modifications and improvements.
Imagine the positive impact this research can bring!
This step can bring numerous benefits by the grace of Allah!
I would like to listen to what was said too. Any chance seeing the talks on youtube?
The innovative approach presented by Dr.Altaf Qadeer is worth trying. Many of our future scientists (children of today) not take the path of science as they are diverted to other fields. Many factors contribute to it. This idea has many more aspects and ways to make it work in all countries. I think, after reading to this comment I would say we should also have a symposium on children’s involvement in science education.